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Young people are voting more than ever in history!If you were 18, would you be planning to vote in this year’s elections?
If the answer’s “Of course!” then you’re not alone. Experts are predicting that more young people aged 18 to 24 will be casting their votes this year than ever before; in fact, a recent study by the Harvard University Institute of Politics says that 29.5 million 18- to 24-year-olds will be headed to the polls in November.
2008 has already been a banner year for young voters. More than 6.5 million people under the age of 30 participated in the 2008 primaries and caucuses. Based on the states where information about youth voter turnout is available, 17% of people under the age of 30 voted in the 2008 primaries…compared to only 9% in the year 2000. In Iowa alone, more than 65,000 young voters turned out to vote in the January caucus. That’s 3 times the number from just four years ago!
It’s not just presidential election years, either. Between the 2002 and 2006 “midterm” elections, the turnout of young voters went up dramatically.
Did you know that young women are leading the way when it comes to the youth vote? In 2004, 50% of women aged 18-24 voted in the 2004 election, compared to 44% of men the same age.*
But it wasn’t always this way…
Young voters made a strong showing in 1972, which was the first election after the national voting age was lowered to 18. After that, however, young voter participation went way down and then stayed down, spiking once in 1992. Following that spike, participation dropped even more…until the first real jump in the 2004 election. |
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